The stuffing of meat into casings is well known in the art. In accordance with general principles a casing is located on a horn, and meat extruded into the casing which is tied off periodically to provide discrete packages. Difficulty arises when it is required to pack a precise quantity of meat into each discrete package. Thus in whole muscle meats such as ham, a relatively large portion of meat may locate where it is desired to tie off the package. The problem may be overcome by severing the meat at a pre-determined juncture prior to the meat being encased. In accordance with one proposal, a radial knife is provided immediately adjacent the end of the horn. Actuating mechanism for the knife cannot locate on the exterior of the horn due to the location of the casing thereon. Such knife actuating mechanism must therefore pass along the interior of the horn, thereby serving to restrict its diameter. Perhaps more importantly, the knife itself serves as a serious restriction, the effective diameter of the horn in the vicinity of the knife being approximately one half the actual internal diameter.
In accordance with other proposals, the horn itself may serve to measure the desired portion of meat to be packed; however, this necessitates changing horns for each different amount to be packed. It also becomes impractical when the amount to be packed is relatively small, as this severely limits the amount of casing that can be stored on the horn.
It is a prime object of the invention to provide apparatus of the aforementioned type which can be employed to pack widely differing quantities of product with reasonable accuracy without necessitating changing component parts.
It is a further main object of the invention to provide such apparatus which is substantially devoid of flow restriction.